Published : October 20, 2020To run your call center successfully, you will have to do more than provide your agents with a script. It includes real-time training via call whispering. 49% of employees want learning to be available at the point of need.
Call whisper allows managers to monitor and join calls to coach agents in real time. It provides them with relevant information and helps them handle similar situations in the future.
But what is call whispering? How does it help your agents improve? Let’s take a look at it.
What is Call Whispering, and How Does It Work?
Call whispering is a feature that allows managers to hear customers’ queries and provide a quick solution for the agent to immediately address the issue at hand.
When you use the call whispering feature, the agent can hear both the manager’s and the customer’s voice while the customer only hears the representative’s voice.
Call Center Coaching Best Practices
Coaching a call center agents helps you improve their performance. However, regular coaching is not very common in organizations. A study by Harvard Business review found that 69% of managers find it uncomfortable speaking with their employees.
That’s where call whisper can help. It allows managers to smoothly train call center agents without making them uncomfortable. Here are some call center coaching best practices to follow:
- Make sure to train each agent (including top performers)
- Provide timely feedback frequently
- Help agents reach their goals by helping them handle complex calls with call whisper messages
- Give suggestions and not orders. Let them decide if they should say what you want them to speak or not
- Explain why you want them to speak in a certain way. It gives them a better understanding of the situation
- Consider your agent’s point of view to understand the “why” behind their “whats”
- Highlight the positives and praise the agent even when they are doing just what you expect them to. Coaching is not about just passing judgments or pointing out mistakes
- Don’t overdo it. Let agents handle some complex inbound call themselves to ensure they are learning
- Collect call data metrics and share them with employees to encourage them
When done right, call center coaching can help your agents gain expertise in their work, which will increase customer satisfaction.
What is “Agent Whisper”?
Agent whisper is an innovative enterprise communication system feature that enables a supervisor or agent to enter active calls and interact with the agent. The difference between call barging and agent whispering is that the former allows the customer/prospect to listen in on the conversation while the latter does not.
Is Call Whisper Legal?
Yes, call whispering in a call center is completely legal. In most cases, the customer service team uses call whispering to provide quick information to the customer/prospect or coach the new agent. This feature does not harm the customer in any way; rather, it improves customer experience.
How Call Whispering Differs From Monitoring & Barge-In
Call monitoring is the process of listening in on live calls in real time to evaluate an agent’s knowledge of the process. In call monitoring, the supervisor does not guide or interact with the agent. On the other hand, call whispering is a call center activity in which the supervisor joins an active call and guides or interacts with the agent.
The difference between call whisper and call barge-in is that in call whisper, only the agent, not the customer or prospect, listens to the supervisor who has entered the active call. In contrast, in the case of call barging, both the agent and the customer can listen to and interact with the supervisor or the person who has joined the call.
How Call Whispering Improve Your Agent’s Performance?
Your call center system will thrive only when each of your agents performs better. According to a study by Oxford University found that happy and satisfied employees are 13% more productive and happy.
Call whispering is a feature that makes call center operations easy for managers. It also ensures your support agents won’t have to put customers on hold to get a solution for their problems and saves them from the embarrassment of asking their colleagues for answers.
As a result, your agents will feel confident in their jobs, and customers will be more satisfied (due to timely and appropriate resolution).
However, call whisper when combined with call monitoring, and call barging can further enhance your call center coaching efforts. Here’s how:
- Call monitoring:
It allows you to listen to the agent’s sales conversations with the customer, thereby providing you a better understanding of how they handle sales calls. Call monitoring helps ensure that all your employees are following the customer support best practices
- Call whispering:
It allows you to provide hints and tips to your agents in real time (during a call). This on-the-spot training will help in improving agent performance.
- Call barging:
It allows you to take over calls from an agent when he cannot handle calls. Call barging is essential as when a customer gets irritated, they demand to speak to the agent’s senior. An experienced agent (or manager) can then take over the call and resolve the issue.
What Are the Benefits of Call Whispering?
When choosing a VoIP system, ensure that it has a call whisper feature. Here’s why:
- Helps train new call center agents
- Enables you to track how your agents are handling customers
- Provides valuable information for coaching call center managers
- Lets you assist your employees through complex calls
- Increases call center agents’ communication skills
- Empowers you to increase customer satisfaction
- Boost your agents’ confidence and job satisfaction
What Will Be the Future of Call Whispering
According to The Economist, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) will be increasingly deployed in the call center environment to learn from humans how to handle complex incoming calls.
Over time, AI and ML will get better and make human agents more efficient by quickly analyzing similar past interactions and call whisper it to agents’ screens.
The primary benefit of implementing AI in call whisper is that it is cost-effective and works faster than humans. Besides, it will free up the manager’s time that they would spend listening to agents’ calls.
Why Callhippo is the Best Call Whisper Software for You?
Final thoughts
Call whispering can help you boost your agents’ performance and customer satisfaction. Ask your VoIP if they have the call whisper feature. If not, consider choosing a provider that offers a call whisper.
Have you tried to call whisper messages? How does it help your contact center? Let us know in the comments.
Updated : February 19, 2025
Rohit Rajpal is a technical content writer with hands-on experience in the VoIP and telephony space. His expertise comes from closely collaborating with product teams to craft clear, technical documentation and user guides for telecommunication software. Rohit’s deep knowledge of VoIP technology allows him to address complex technical issues and provide insightful solutions.
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